Chapter Summaries

Xu Wuyi sparred with Wang Hanshan, who praised his mastery of gravity and flame and predicted he would become a Grandmaster within three to five years. Wang Hanshan believed Xu Wuyi’s lingering sense that something was missing came from within himself, and Xu stayed at his mountain retreat to train and reflect.

• Xu Wuyi and Wang Hanshan discussed their different ways of using the rule of weight after their sparring match.
• Wang Hanshan assessed Xu Wuyi’s path as sound and said he would likely reach the Grandmaster realm within three to five years.
• Xu Wuyi told Wang Hanshan that he still felt something essential was missing despite his stable Heart Image.
• Wang Hanshan explained that Xu Wuyi’s sense of incompleteness was not a flaw in his Heart Image and invited him to stay for further training.
• Xu Wuyi cleaned a side room and meditated as evening fell, contemplating the Great Marsh and Golden Crow in his sea of consciousness.

Xu Wuyi trained and sparred with Wang Hanshan, but the feeling that something was missing from his Heart Image remained. He left Wang Hanshan’s mountain residence to seek answers elsewhere and planned to visit the quasi-Grandmaster Shao Yu in Su'an Province.

• Xu Wuyi watched Wang Hanshan practice, then sparred with him using the Prairie Fire Long Spear and gravity manipulation.
• Over five days, Xu Wuyi and Wang Hanshan sparred seven times, deepening Xu Wuyi’s bodily understanding of weight.
• Xu Wuyi meditated on the sixth evening and realized the sense of something missing had not changed.
• Xu Wuyi told Wang Hanshan he was leaving because he could not find his answer there, and Wang Hanshan encouraged him to travel.
• Xu Wuyi said he planned to visit Shao Yu in Su'an Province, and Wang Hanshan advised him to be patient with the sword-wielding quasi-Grandmaster.

Xu Wuyi traveled to the Shao Family Manor to spar with Shao Yu, a quasi-Grandmaster renowned for swift swordsmanship. Shao Yu agreed to the match but said Xu Wuyi first had to defeat him.

• Xu Wuyi read Shao Yu's file on the train and looked forward to testing the elder's sword speed.
• Xu Wuyi arrived in Lingchuan City and took a cab to the Shao Family Manor, where Steward Zhou escorted him to Listening Sword Cottage.
• Xu Wuyi waited quietly while Shao Yu meditated, then introduced himself when Shao Yu spoke.
• Shao Yu questioned Xu Wuyi about his age and sparring match with Wang Hanshan, then agreed to spar on the condition that Xu Wuyi defeat him first.

Xu Wuyi accepted Shao Yu’s challenge to defeat him or leave Listening Sword Cottage and faced the old man’s relentless Thunderclap Nine Swords. As Shao Yu’s speed forced Xu Wuyi onto the defensive, Xu Wuyi activated his gravity manipulation to change the battle’s rhythm.

• Shao Yu told Xu Wuyi he could stay at Listening Sword Cottage only if he won their spar, and Xu Wuyi agreed.
• Shao Yu led Xu Wuyi to the estate’s martial training ground, where they took up positions with sword and spear.
• Shao Yu launched a sudden sword strike, and Xu Wuyi barely blocked it with the Prairie Fire Spear.
• Shao Yu pressed Xu Wuyi with the rapid, continuous Thunderclap Nine Swords, leaving him unable to counterattack.
• Xu Wuyi realized he had to break Shao Yu’s rhythm and fully activated his gravity manipulation.

Xu Wuyi adapted to Shao Yu’s swift sword by manipulating gravity, predicting his movements, and sharpening his perception until he could counter the attacks. Shao Yu conceded the duel and invited Xu Wuyi inside for tea.

• Xu Wuyi used a shifting gravitational field to deflect Shao Yu’s sword strikes and planted Gravity Seeds where he predicted Shao Yu would step.
• Xu Wuyi began counterattacking as the gravity disrupted Shao Yu’s movements, and Shao Yu recognized that Xu Wuyi was still probing and learning.
• Shao Yu accelerated his sword strikes, but Xu Wuyi adapted to their rhythm and eventually saw through every attack without being wounded.
• Xu Wuyi and Shao Yu stopped fighting, and Shao Yu acknowledged Xu Wuyi’s victory and praised his ability.
• Shao Yu invited Xu Wuyi to Listening Sword Cottage, where they drank tea together.

Xu Wuyi sparred with Shao Yu at Listening Sword Cottage and received advice about his Heart Image before resuming his journey across the Federation to meet quasi-Grandmasters. He passed the trials of the martial artists he visited and continued exchanging techniques and insights.

• Shao Yu questioned Xu Wuyi about how he had adapted to fast sword techniques, and Xu Wuyi explained that he had studied and countered Ye Yixin's sword for a month.
• Shao Yu praised Xu Wuyi's calm, analytical temperament, then reviewed his travel list and offered guidance about the quasi-Grandmasters on it.
• Xu Wuyi stayed at Listening Sword Cottage for five days, sparring with Shao Yu four times and discussing martial arts with him.
• Shao Yu warned Xu Wuyi that his strong Heart Image might be the source of a problem and advised him to meet quasi-Grandmasters in Su'an Province.
• Xu Wuyi traveled across the Federation, sparring with local quasi-Grandmasters and passing their trials.

Xu Wuyi traveled across the Federation, sparring with quasi-Grandmasters and refining his martial arts as he searched for the flaw in his Heart Image. After reaching Xingjing, he realized his true heart had changed and went to seek Lin Jianyi’s guidance.

• Xu Wuyi fought Chen Han, Su Yu, Luo Qinghe, Wen Liang, and Shikong, learning from their distinct martial arts and advice.
• Xu Wuyi traveled through all twenty-three provinces and five war zones, visited twenty-seven quasi-Grandmasters, and steadily strengthened his spear arts, Heart Image, Life Energy Level, and mental strength.
• When the first snow fell in December, Xu Wuyi reached a hill outside Xingjing and looked toward Lin Jianyi’s courtyard.
• Xu Wuyi recognized that his past anger at injustice had become complicated by what he had learned about privilege, Grandmasters, and the Federation.
• Xu Wuyi decided to ask Lin Jianyi to draw his sword again because he could no longer find a clear target for the Golden Crow flames born from his resistance to injustice.

Xu Wuyi returned to Lin Jianyi and asked him to question his heart again to uncover the purpose of his martial path. Lin Jianyi’s deeper sword strike plunged Xu Wuyi into darkness, where memories of his impoverished youth began to surface.

• Xu Wuyi told Lin Jianyi that after traveling through twenty-three provinces, five war zones, and visiting twenty-seven prospective Grandmasters, he still did not know what his martial path was for.
• Xu Wuyi asked Lin Jianyi to strike with his sword again, accepting that he might lose his Heart Image and have to start over.
• Lin Jianyi warned that the deeper questioning could sever Xu Wuyi’s Heart Image, but Xu Wuyi insisted on proceeding.
• Lin Jianyi raised two fingers and sent an icy sword light into Xu Wuyi’s sea of consciousness.
• Xu Wuyi saw memories of his fifteen-year-old self training with few resources at Honghe Middle School and heard classmates compare his circumstances with Lin Yuanshan’s.
• Xu Wuyi saw his sixteen-year-old self standing before the school ranking board as classmates discussed Lin Yuanshan’s private Martial Master instructor.

Xu Wuyi examined how power and strength shaped privilege, then struggled to define fairness through examples of disability, battlefield sacrifice, and the Federation’s history. The chapter left him still questioning fairness as the visions of the Federation’s past continued.

• Xu Wuyi revisited the injustice of losing a university admission spot to Su Yueling because the Lin Family had intervened.
• Xu Wuyi saw how his growing strength changed others’ treatment of him, granting him a privilege earned through power rather than institutions.
• Xu Wuyi considered whether allocating resources by talent was fair to disabled people, ordinary talents, and the poor.
• Xu Wuyi saw a Grandmaster die defending the Federation and questioned whether his family’s far greater compensation than ordinary soldiers’ families was fair.
• Xu Wuyi watched the Federation’s history unfold, beginning with its founding amid threats and its later struggle for survival against alien civilizations.

Xu Wuyi realized that absolute fairness was impossible and that order was the path toward making society fairer. His Golden Crow transformed into the Flame of Order, and he emerged from his inner questioning with a new direction.

• Xu Wuyi understood that fairness could never be absolute because people had different needs and resources remained limited.
• An image of Xu Wuyi explained that order could protect the weak, restrain the strong, and establish rules for distributing resources.
• Xu Wuyi recognized that his Golden Crow needed a direction beyond burning injustice: establishing rules that let people compete fairly and limited oppression.
• The Golden Crow's flames gained a blue hue and became the Flame of Order.
• Xu Wuyi returned to awareness in Lin Jianyi's courtyard and saw that his Golden Crow had infused his Great Marsh with order.

Xu Wuyi redefined his Heart Image around establishing order and learned from Lin Jianyi that enforcing it would require overwhelming strength. While staying in Lin Jianyi’s courtyard, he discovered that his evolved Golden Crow could wield a controllable Flame of Order.

• Xu Wuyi told Lin Jianyi that injustice could not be eliminated, so he wanted to establish order through rules and take responsibility for judging.
• Lin Jianyi warned Xu Wuyi that the reach of any order depended on the power to enforce it, and Xu Wuyi resolved to keep his goal private until he grew strong enough.
• Xu Wuyi stayed in Lin Jianyi’s courtyard for half a month to stabilize his changed Heart Image.
• Xu Wuyi sensed a blue halo fused with the Golden Crow’s flames and recognized it as the power of order.
• Xu Wuyi discovered that the Flame of Order could precisely ignite an enemy’s vital blood, mind, or body.

Xu Wuyi explored the Flame of Order’s rule-level power and spent seven days refining his understanding. Lin Jianyi arranged a suitable opponent for him, and Zhao Qingwei arrived at the courtyard to find Xu Wuyi waiting there.

• Xu Wuyi realized the Flame of Order could strike a locked target inevitably and burn away the order sustaining their body and abilities.
• Xu Wuyi practiced sensing the flame, training his spear, and discussing his insights with Lin Jianyi for seven days.
• Xu Wuyi told Lin Jianyi that he wanted to test the Flame of Order on the Battle Net, and Lin Jianyi promised to find him an opponent.
• Lin Jianyi invited Zhao Qingwei to visit him, and she replied that she would arrive that afternoon.
• Zhao Qingwei arrived at Lin Jianyi’s courtyard and found Xu Wuyi seated at the stone table.

Lin Jianyi arranged for Zhao Qingwei to spar with Xu Wuyi so he could stabilize his newly advanced Heart Image and she could challenge her swordsmanship bottleneck. Xu Wuyi’s Flame of Order repeatedly stopped her attacks, and Zhao Qingwei’s condition began to deteriorate as she pressed on.

• Zhao Qingwei told Lin Jianyi that her pursuit of sword speed had reached a bottleneck, while Xu Wuyi said he needed an opponent to help him master the Flame of Order.
• Lin Jianyi asked Zhao Qingwei to spar with Xu Wuyi, explaining that his Heart Image needed real combat and that facing it could benefit her too.
• Xu Wuyi limited himself to roughly level 40 as Zhao Qingwei attacked with Frostfall, but his blue Flame of Order stopped her sword and threw her power into chaos.
• Zhao Qingwei demanded another round and unleashed her full speed, but Xu Wuyi formed a net of blue flames that blocked every strike.
• Zhao Qingwei felt her sword intent, blood and qi, and spirit grow increasingly disordered as her thoughts began to blur.

Zhao Qingwei trained with Xu Wuyi to resist his Flame of Order and gradually found a path for her sword, eventually touching his chest with her blade. After half a month, Lin Jianyi asked Xu Wuyi about his mastery, and Xu Wuyi said he could use the ability’s effects freely but could not sustain combat for long because of the mental strain.

• Xu Wuyi’s Flame of Order overwhelmed Zhao Qingwei during their spar, and Lin Jianyi told her to make speed itself into a rule rather than rely on technique alone.
• Zhao Qingwei sparred with Xu Wuyi daily and listened to Lin Jianyi’s guidance as she struggled to keep her mind clear within the blue light.
• On the fifth day, Zhao Qingwei held on to a thread of clarity and drove her sword an inch through Xu Wuyi’s light screen.
• By the tenth, twelfth, and fifteenth days, Zhao Qingwei pushed her sword three inches, five inches, and finally to Xu Wuyi’s chest.
• Lin Jianyi asked Xu Wuyi how well he had mastered Flame of Order, and Xu Wuyi said he could use targeted burning and rule-locking at will, though the ability consumed too much mental energy for prolonged fighting.

After Lin Jianyi told Xu Wuyi he was close to becoming a Grandmaster, Xu Wuyi chose to join the Inspection Department to witness the Federation’s corruption and abuses firsthand. Feng Zhuohua gave him the false identity Meng Zhishou and assigned him to lead the struggling fourth squad, where he was to report in three days.

• Lin Jianyi told Xu Wuyi that his Heart Image had stabilized and that he could become a Grandmaster within six months.
• Xu Wuyi told Zhao Qingwei he planned to take a post in the Inspection Department to see how corruption and privilege harmed the Federation.
• Xu Wuyi traveled to Military Department headquarters, where Feng Zhuohua gave him a false identity, a mask, and the codename Mountain.
• Feng Zhuohua appointed Xu Wuyi captain of the Inspection Department’s fourth squad and told him to report for duty in three days.
• Xu Wuyi read the files of the squad’s five members and learned that the team had low morale after its previous captain died.

Xu Wuyi went to the Inspection Department headquarters and entered the hidden underground operations center. He reached the Fourth Squad’s office, where five squad members waited to meet him.

• Xu Wuyi found the Inspection Department headquarters disguised as a shabby public office and presented his identity card to the elderly receptionist.
• The receptionist recognized Xu Wuyi’s credentials, led him to a concealed elevator, and sent him to the seventh basement level.
• Xu Wuyi saw the Inspection Department’s advanced operations hall and headed to the Fourth Squad’s office.
• Xu Wuyi entered the office and met Deputy Captain Zhou Bin, Fang Xiaoxiao, Sun Jing, Li Zhaowen, and Chen Yunxuan.

Xu Wuyi took command of Fourth Squad and spent his first days studying its records and the powerful organizations in Xingjing. He found the Zhao family, the Qiao Family, and the Dongjiang Battle Group exceptionally clean, but uncovered suspicious financial activity among several mid-sized conglomerates.

• Xu Wuyi introduced himself as Meng Zhishou, the new captain, and met Zhou Bin, Fang Xiaoxiao, Sun Jing, Li Zhaowen, and Chen Yunxuan.
• Xu Wuyi spent three days reviewing Fourth Squad's mission files and learned that its difficult assignments had led to low success rates and the previous captain's death.
• Xu Wuyi investigated the Xingjing Zhao Family and found no evidence of wrongdoing by the family itself.
• Xu Wuyi reviewed the Qiao Family and the Dongjiang Battle Group, finding their records exceptionally clean as well.
• Xu Wuyi examined mid-sized Xingjing conglomerates and found suspicious tax records, unclear financial flows, and large transactions involving shell companies.

Xu Wuyi reviewed archived cases and searched for a target that could establish his authority without provoking excessive trouble. After choosing Skysea Group, he finally called the Fourth Squad together for a meeting, leaving them waiting to hear his plan.

• Xu Wuyi read reports of powerful families and companies whose investigations had been halted, recognizing that influential patrons protected them.
• Fang Xiaoxiao, Zhou Bin, Sun Jing, Li Zhaowen, and Chen Yunxuan discussed Xu Wuyi’s week of inactivity and questioned whether he dared take on a mission.
• Xu Wuyi listened without anger and decided that Skysea Group, suspected of large-scale Star Realm smuggling, was a suitable target because its protection did not reach Grandmaster level.
• On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, Xu Wuyi called the Fourth Squad to a meeting, and the five squad members gathered around the table.

Xu Wuyi briefed Fourth Squad on evidence that Skysea Group was smuggling forbidden goods and assigned teams to arrest key personnel and seize proof. He began revealing the strength of Wang Haidong’s security detail, but the chapter ended before he identified its final member.

• Xu Wuyi presented evidence linking Skysea Group to Star Realm smuggling, including money trails, call recordings, and photographs of military-grade materials.
• Li Zhaowen clarified that Skysea Group’s controller, Wang Haidong, was distantly related to Li Mingyuan, though no substantive exchange of interests had been uncovered.
• Xu Wuyi assigned Fang Xiaoxiao to help arrest Wang Haidong, Zhou Bin and Sun Jing to raid a warehouse, and Li Zhaowen and Chen Yunxuan to arrest executive Zhang Yuhuai.
• Sun Jing, Zhou Bin, and Fang Xiaoxiao warned Xu Wuyi that Wang Haidong likely had a capable private armed force protecting him.
• Xu Wuyi revealed that Wang Haidong had twelve regular guards, including seven lower-level Martial Artists and four mid-tier Martial Masters, before beginning to describe the last guard.

Xu Wuyi led the Fourth Squad’s operation against Wang Haidong, assuring Fang Xiaoxiao he was certain he could defeat Zhao Gufeng. He and Fang reached Skysea Building and approached openly as law enforcement officers, where Wang Haidong’s guards blocked their way.

• Xu Wuyi confirmed he would handle Zhao Gufeng and told the squad to prepare for a fast arrest before dawn.
• The six members of the Fourth Squad split into three groups and left Inspection Department headquarters.
• On the drive to Skysea Building, Xu Wuyi told Fang Xiaoxiao he was ten out of ten certain he could win against Zhao Gufeng.
• Xu Wuyi rejected Fang Xiaoxiao’s suggestion of sneaking into Skysea Building and said they would enter with their official credentials.
• Xu Wuyi and Fang Xiaoxiao crossed to the building’s main entrance, where one of Wang Haidong’s security guards stepped forward to stop them.